Lost
by hellmouth princess
Summary: BtVSHP crossover. After Buffy dies Dawn is sent to live with her uncle and Aunt in England. She's part slayer and still being hunted as the key, but will she be any safer at Hogwarts?
1. Prologue

**Lost**

By Hellmouth princess

Disclaimer: I own nothing, characters are property of JK Rowling, Joss Whedon etc

Prologue

"Well why can't you get custody of her?" complained Willow, as she sat looking depressed in Buffy's living room. Buffy wasn't there anymore but it was still her house.

"Because then he's have to explain why an ex school librarian was so close to two teenage girls in the first place" said Anya trying to be helpful "People might think Buffy was an orgasm friend, then they might wonder if it started back during school when he was a member of the faculty and she was a pupil and a minor and then they would probably assume Giles was some kind of sick"

Everyone cringed at the thought, but Giles said, "That was one of the problems, it's also doubtful that I would win out over family without a valid connection. I also think that this might be for the best"

"What?" Willow almost shouted. "How? How is Dawnie going to the other side of the world for the best? She should be here, with us"

"This is her family Wills" said Xander. "This man is Dawn's uncle; he's the only real family she's got left now her dad's gone as well. Maybe this is the best. She gets to have a normal life, with a normal family, she'll be living with her aunt and uncle and her cousin"

"I just" Willow struggled to explain it. "I just feel like we owe it to Buffy to look after Dawn"

"We owe it to Buffy to protect Dawn" said Giles gently. "I think sending her away would be the best way to do that. She needs to have a normal childhood away from the hellmouth"

Tara squeezed Willow's hand and gave her a small smile. "I guess so" said Willow reluctantly.

"Well if there are no more complaints then Dawn will be leaving for England next week"

"So how's she getting there?"

"She's flying to Heathrow I believe and her aunt and uncle will pick her up from there and take her to little Whinging"


	2. So This is England

**Chapter One: So This is England**

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Dawn sat on the plane in silence. She had been quiet a lot lately. She hadn't complained when Giles told her about her uncles. She had jut focussed on packing; it was something to do other than think about Buffy. She knew the others had had an argument over whether or not she should go, she had overheard it all. She was torn between wanting to go and not. On the one hand everything in Sunnydale was familiar, it was Buffy. The house was safe and warm and full of Buffy, helping her remember her sister. On the other hand the house reminded her of Buffy.

The same thing that made her want to stay made her want to leave, even trying to focus on happy memories of Buffy like everybody told you to do when you're grieving didn't help. Thinking of the happy times made her smile for a moment, but only served to remind her of all the good things she was missing, everything she had lost, everything that was her fault.

With all this going on inside she sat in silence for the very long flight. She stared out the window at the dark night sky, remembering when hell was literally flying from that sky, then she thought back to the tower. She kept reliving that moment on the tower, thinking that if she had only ran first she could have saved Buffy. It was meant to be her not Buffy. She was the key, so why did Buffy have to die?

"Are you alright?" asked the woman next to her kindly, seeing the tears running down her face.

Dawn looked up as if waking from a dream. She couldn't even manage a small fake smile so she simply nodded, but turning back to the window she whispered "No, I'm not alright"

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"There she is" said Petunia, looking at the picture in her hand and then up at the tall brown haired girl that looked lost in the airport.

She didn't seem to see the Dursleys, but she didn't really see anything else either. It was as if she was in her own world as she walked into the arrivals lounge. She jumped when she heard somebody call out "Dawn"

She turned to face her aunt, uncle and cousin. 'So this is my new family' she thought. 'Petunia looks nice, a little too thin with a very long neck, but nice enough' Vernon on the other hand was huge and the couple didn't quite look right together. Dawn was reminded of a rhyme Xander had once told her, 'fatty and skinny went to bed, fatty rolled over and skinny was dead' Despite the joke in her head she still couldn't return the smiles they were giving her.

"Aunt Petunia" Dawn greeted as she was pulled into a hug. "It's been so long", she could hardly say it was good to see her.

"Dawn" greeted Vernon, opting to shake her hand rather than hug her. "You're right; it's been far too long, shame about the circumstances of course"

"Yes dear, are you alright?" added Petunia, "It must have been so hard for you; you're mother passing away just a few months ago, then Buffy and now your father"

Dawn imagined what Buffy would have said had she been there; she would have made some comment about her father never being around anyway. But Buffy wasn't there and the truth was Dawn was not unaffected by her father's death. It didn't help that she hadn't even be notified until after the funeral that he had died of a heart attack.

"It's not easy" said Dawn quietly. She looked around, so this was the land of Giles. It was way too much like America, she always thought everything would be small and quaint and English with tea and tweed everywhere, instead it seemed pretty normal.

"Well come on, let's get you home then. We spoke to, I think he said he was a friend of your mother's, Mr Giles is it?" at the nod she continued. "Well he said you like purple, so that's the colour of your room" said Petunia in a high cheery voice as she led the way back to the car.

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The car journey was long and reasonably quiet after a while. Petunia had tried making conversation when Dawn pretended to fall asleep. That night Dawn excused herself from dinner, not sure if she could stand anymore attempted conversation.

Up in her new room she sat for a few minutes looking around her new room. It was purple, not quite the shade she would have chosen but it wasn't bad. It seemed cold and bare though, like a hotel room or a guest room, not a long term place to stay. There was a desk and a wardrobe and some empty shelves, there was also several stacks of boxes that had been shipped over before she got here. If she unpacked she could probably make the room look more like her own but she really didn't have the energy right now.

She didn't want to sleep even though she was tired because she knew the nightmares would come, so instead she picked out one of the books she had 'borrowed' from home. Lately novels had seemed so boring and fake to her, full of happy situations that she couldn't relate to, so she settled on reading a book on demons.

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Dawn fell asleep eventually. She woke up screaming Buffy, just as she watched her sister jump again. She hated sleeping now, it was like pressing play on the nightmare leading up to the tower and then it always ended when Buffy jumped.

Dawn didn't go down to breakfast that morning, even though she was hungry. She didn't want to face anybody yet. Instead she started unpacking all her stuff. A lot of it wasn't actually hers; she had taken it from Buffy's room and around the house. For this reason she had a few too many pairs of leather pants and the makings of an occult book store. She hid these books away in a box under her bed, knowing they wouldn't make the best impression on the Dursleys.

A knock on the door made Dawn push the book she was reading under the bed and pull out a magazine before calling, "Come in"

"You're up then?" said Petunia with a smile. She had a looked around the room. "You've unpacked? We thought we'd let you do it so you could get everything the way you wanted it, and you probably didn't want us going through all your stuff anyway. Well Vernon's at work and I'm just about to pop down to the shops to make sure I've got lots in for little Dudders coming home tomorrow. I swear they don't feed him enough at that school"

Dawn found that phrasing quite interesting. She had seen pictures of 'little Dudders', and there appeared to be nothing little about him. If his report that was pinned to the fridge was anything to go by, they perhaps his brains were small, but other than that the boy was built like an overgrown hippo.

"Would you like to come?" continued Petunia

"No thanks, I think I'll just stay in. I'm still kinda tired, jetlag I think." Said Dawn, "If that's Ok" she quickly added.

"No, that's fine" said Petunia, still overly cheerful. "Well, help yourself to anything if you get hungry, you missed breakfast. The television is in the lounge, just remember, this is your home now"

Dawn managed a weak smile. She turned back to look at the magazine as Petunia left. She listened as the front door shut and then a car drove out of the front drive. She threw the magazine onto the desk and stood up.

Dawn walked into the first room on this floor. She knew she shouldn't be snooping around in other people's bedrooms but she just wanted to get a feel fro the place and maybe learn some more about her new family. This room was clearly Vernon and Petunia's. There was a large double bed against one wall with matching bedside tables. A large dressing table with mirror was covered in various cosmetics and pictures of Dudley. There was a chest of drawers and double wardrobe. All in all, it was a pretty standard room.

The next room she assumed was Dudley's. It was cramped with all the computer games, toys, games and everything else Dudley had. He was clearly spoilt; it probably came from growing up as an only child.

The next room was a bathroom, but the last room on this floor was the strangest. There was a large bolt on the outside, with space for a padlock, obviously for extra protection. Bizarrely enough there was also a cat flap even though she was sure the Dursleys didn't have any pets.

Opening the door she found it was quite small and reasonably bare, although there was some broken junk, like a TV with a whole in the middle of the screen. It must have been somebody's bedroom because there was a wardrobe and an uncomfortable bed in there. The wardrobe was full of old clothes in large sizes and on the wall there was a flag with Gryffindor written on it next to a picture of a lion. Dawn assumed this must be an English soccer team.

Determined to find out whose rooms it was she looked for clues under the bed. All she found was an old book. On further inspection the book turned out to be a spell book, but not one like she had seen. The incantations were all Latin based and could have been legitimate, but they were followed by different direction on how to swish and flick your wand. She dismissed it as some cheap novelty book that had probably come with a plastic wand and starry cloak and hat.

With no more clues to be found, the room remained a mystery.

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Dawn had a quick breakfast consisting of a bowl of cereal and flicked through the channels on TV a few times before deciding to go out for some fresh air. She left a quick note for Petunia and hoped her aunt got back before she did because she didn't have a key.

The whole street was just a row of identical houses with neat lawns and hedges, all lacking any personality of their own. The curtains were all similar flowery patterns with net curtains on the ground floor, and Dawn briefly wondered if they all had the same magnolia walls inside and the same coloured carpets.

Dawn walked for about an hour until she seemed to be in the town centre, or at least somewhere with shops. She didn't have much money, but Giles had given her some English pounds to start her off. She found an Internet Café and went in, settling down in front of a computer to write an e-mail.

_Hey Will, _(it read)

_I'm in England. It's kinda weird, not as much tea and tweed as you would have expected. Actually a lot of things aren't that different, they even have MacDonalds and Starbucks. I always thought he would fit in perfectly, but I think Giles would probably be just as stuffy over here_

_My aunt and uncle are nice. They're trying but Petunia is just being overly cheerful al the time and it's actually getting quite scary. _

_My cousin is coming home from school tomorrow. He goes to some boarding school. I think I've met him once before but I don't remember him at all, I was too young. Buffy told me about him once, she described him as a beach ball with arms and legs and said she'd been severely tempted to knock him over and give him a push to see how well he rolled. _

_So how's everyone back in Sunnydale? Say hi to them all for me, I'd write separately but they'd all end up the same and I think you're the only one who checks their e-mail regularly. Just read this out loud for me._

_How's the demon situation in Sunnydale? They usually lie low after a big apocalypse aversion don't they?_

_Well e-mail me back soon, I want to hear all the gossip from Sunnydale_

_I'm missing everyone loads_

_Love you all_

_Dawn_

She checked it over before reading it, amazed at how cheerful she could sound when she actually felt the complete opposite. She headed home not long after that, it was late afternoon already and she didn't want anybody to start worrying about her.

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Dawn had picked up a sandwich while she was out so she managed to avoid dinner that night as well, claiming she was tired. Once again she sat reading until sleep finally claimed her, pulling her into that nightmare once more where her world fell apart.

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AN: It just occurred to me that if Vernon and Hank were brothers then they should have the same last name. So I'm going to say that they were only half brothers, with the same mother. Hanks parents divorced shortly after he was born, his mother remarried and Vernon was born. Hanks father is American and he spent a lot of time with him so that's why he is American and Vernon is English.

I realise that this is complete rubbish but I just made it up on the spot to fix that little problem. The truth is they're brothers because it makes my plot work.


	3. Meeting the Family

**Chapter Two: Meeting the family**

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"Let's get this straight boy" said Vernon as he drove Harry and Dudley home from Kings Cross station after picking them both up. "Dawn is my niece and she's not a freak like you. She's a nice girl and I don't want her bothered by your differences. You will tell her that you attend St Brutus' Secure Centre for Incurable Criminal Boys. But that's only if she asks you, on the whole you don't talk to her at all.

"How long is she staying for?" asked Harry.

"She's no staying with us. She's living with us" replied Vernon. "Now then, do you understand? You're not to tell her about your school, you're not to let her see any of you're weird stuff, you're to appear as normal as you can"

"If she's actually living there won't she work it out eventually?" said Harry, wondering if this girl was such an idiot that she wouldn't notice anything was wrong, or if Uncle Vernon was the idiot for thinking she wouldn't notice.

"Not everybody's mind works like that" snapped Vernon. "Dawn doesn't know anything about your _world_. She will think that everything is perfectly normal, because you will give her no reason to think anything else. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes Uncle Vernon" said Harry through clenched teeth. He thought about what Dawn must be like. He imagined a Dudley with longer hair and an American accent. Somebody big loud and annoying. She would almost certainly have the same attitude that the other Dursleys had; she would think she was better than him even if she didn't know he was a freak.

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"We've just had a lot of problems with Harry in the past" Petunia had told Dawn earlier as she sat next to her in the living room. "We've been raising him since he was a baby and we love him like he was our own son, but he's always refused to be a part of the family, convinced we rejected him because he was an orphan. He used to tell lies about us locking him in the cupboard under the stairs and not feeding him. He's at this school for his own good.

"Yes" Vernon continued. "We're strict with him because that's the only way to get through to him. On the whole we think you should stay away from him" he continued seeing the look on Dawn's face "Don't worry he's not dangerous or anything, but he's a compulsive liar and it's hard to get the truth out of him most of the time. You just don't want to get in with him too much"

'That's good to know' thought Dawn. 'I'm living with a maniac; well at least I have a lock on my bedroom door'. It was then that the padlock on what must be Harry's bedroom door began to make sense and scare her slightly at the same time.

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Dawn sat in silence eating her dinner that night. She would rather not have to sit here awkwardly but she was hungry and didn't feel comfortable enough here to sneak down in the middle of the night and take food like she might have back home. She also thought skipping dinner three nights in a row might raise suspicions.

"Of course we'll have to get you enrolled into a school for next year" Petunia was saying. "Dudley goes to Smeltings, but that's an all boy's school, and I don't think they have a counterpart for girls. I suppose the local comprehensive isn't too bad academically, but I've heard it's a bit rough.

"Ah, I'm sure Dawn can handle a little bit or rough. She lived with my brother for long enough, he must have taught her a thing or two" said Vernon in a joking manner.

"Not that long" said Dawn quietly.

"Yes, I suppose your parents split up a while before he died, but you still saw a lot of him though didn't you?" said Vernon.

"I haven't seen him in at least a year; actually I think quite a bit more than that. He never answered the phone, never replied to messages. He didn't even come to my mum's funeral or acknowledge her death. He left me and Buffy to deal with that all by ourselves. I didn't get to go to his funeral because nobody realised until a few days after that even he had daughters"

Harry choked on his food but quickly took a drink, not that anybody noticed anyway, they were all back in the ever familiar 'ignore Harry' mode. Even Dawn who had hardly looked at him since he had arrived. What amazed Harry more than the way Dawn had delivered this little speech completely devoid of any emotion, was the way that her uncle and aunt, who were treating her like a female e Dudley, completely ignored it.

"So what school did you go to before?" asked Petunia.

"I was still at Sunnydale Junior High, but that was only because there isn't actually a Sunnydale High at the moment. I think they're going to start rebuilding it soon, it's been planned for a while"

"What happened to the old one?" asked Harry before he could stop himself.

Dawn looked at him. 'My sister blew it up to kill the recently ascended Giant Snake Mayor' she thought. Somehow she couldn't see that going down too well. "Gas Leak" she said, giving the official story. "The whole school blew up just after my sister's graduation"

They never understood how the people of Sunnydale accounted a spontaneous eclipse, watching the mayor grow into a giant snake, and an attack by vampires to a gas leak. People don't have little holes in their necks and die from blood loss due to gas leaks. Oh and principals don't get eaten either.

Harry noticed Dawn looked sadder than normal when she mentioned her sister. He also got the feeling that thee was a longer story there than she was letting one, but how much do you have to hide about a gas leak? Maybe it was just something about her sister and she wasn't ready to talk about it yet.

"So you're sister graduated then?" asked Vernon. Harry gave him a lock of amazement, even he could see this was not what Dawn wanted to talk about. "I wasn't sure, after all it was touch and go there for a while, especially after that incident back in LA"

"What happened in LA?" asked Dudley.

"Buffy showed her arsonist side" said Vernon as if it was a joke.

"Actually" said Dawn, getting pissed off at the way Vernon was talking about the woman who had saved his and millions of other lives over an over again. "She burned down her High School gym because it was full of vampires"

Harry did a repeat of the choking act as Vernon and Petunia started laughing. "Oh yes, Hank said that was her story. She, well she was in a hospital for a while after that though wasn't she?"

"Can I please be excused from the table?" asked Dawn, standing up without waiting for the answer.

"Strange girl" muttered Vernon. He noticed the look Harry was giving him and looked at him sharply. "What are you looking at boy?"

"It never occurred to you that her 'strange' behaviour might have something to do with the fact that she's grieving for her whole family right now? And you just keep parading them in front of her, making jokes of the bad points, when she doesn't want to talk about it" said Harry.

How do you know that?" asked Vernon in suspicion. "I thought I told you not to talk to her"

"I didn't, but any idiot can see that.

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Dawn grabbed her jacket and decided to go for a walk to clear her head after dinner. She could feel somebody's eyes on her as she walked. It took her a few minutes but she eventually figured out who it was when he accidentally got a little too close. She could smell that unique mix of leather, cigarettes, alcohol and blood.

The whole sensing people following her thing was new. She wished she had Giles to help her research it more. A long time ago they had worked out that she was part slayer as a result of being made from Buffy. It generally didn't make any difference, her 'slayer powers' were such a tiny fraction of that of an actual slayer that they hardly showed at all.

The weird part was that when Buffy died Dawn got stronger. It wasn't that she was called when Buffy died. Giles had explained earlier that when Buffy died the first time and Kendra was called, that was it. It wasn't like you could hold he under water and then resuscitate her over and over and create an army of slayers. To get a new slayer Buffy had to die.

What had happened was more of a power transferral, she couldn't confirm her theory, but she guessed that when Buffy died closing the portal she was channelling the power of the key, Dawn's power. So to balance that out Dawn had received some of Buffy's power, that of a slayer. She didn't have the full power of one though, she guessed she was stronger than your average person, but she wasn't about to go out patrolling any day soon.

Dawn listened as somebody else approached the swing she was sitting on in the abandoned children's play area. She was practising with her slightly enhanced senses. The person wasn't that heavy, that was about all she could work out. He kind of smelt like, roast beef?

"Harry" she said without looking up. It was an easyish guess, they had just had roast beef, Vernon and Dudley were both heavy and Petunia wore heels.

"Hi" he said, sitting next to her.

She looked up at him, and stiffened slightly as she remembered what she had been old about him. "I don't think we're meant to be talking to each other" she said.

"You're not scared of me are you?"

She snorted "A teen offender? There are worse things in this world"

"Like vampires?" he asked. She didn't reply, "What do you know about vampires then?"

"Well, they suck blood, they're evil, you can kill them by a stake through the heart or decapitation and they don't like sunlight" she said, listing off the normal fairytale versions. "Most famous one would probably be Dracula"

"So why would you burn down a gym to kill them?" he asked. He had seen some things about real vampires in a DADA text book, being the only subject he enjoyed he sometimes flicked through those books. Fire was another way of killing vampires, but she obviously knew that.

"Who knows? Didn't you hear my sister was crazy?"

"So what is worse in this world?" he asked. Seeing how upset she got again by saying sister.

"My stalker?" she suggested quietly. Then she focussed on her surroundings. "I can guess at why I'm being followed, but why are you?"

"What?" he asked he was about to stand up and look around when Dawn caught his hand.

"Subtlety a new concept to you?" she asked. "Any idea why you may be being followed?"

"We have to go" he said quietly. He stood up and started leading her back to the house. The only people who he could think of that would follow him were Death Eaters, followers of the recently restored Voldemort.

"I'll take that as a yes" she said seeing his reaction. "So what's going on?"

"I can't tell you" he said.

"Like hell you can't" she said standing still. "I'm not a big fan of being left in the dark you know. It's happened too much before"

"Dawn, we have to go back now. This isn't some game"

"Let me guess, life and death kind of issues. Been there done that, I'll start running when we reach apocalypse standard, now tell me what the hell is going on"

"Fine, I will, just as soon as we get back"

She looked into his eyes, checking to see if he was telling the truth. She decided that she was going to have to trust him so she nodded and began to walk again.

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Let me know if the stuff about Dawns all new slayer powers confuse you. They'll probably come up more later.


	4. Explaining

**Chapter Three: Explaining **

Sorry, I thought I had said when this was set, in Buffy it's obviously straight after season five, in Harry Potter it's after book four so it may vaguely run along the lines of book five or I may change it completely.

Also a lot of people have said I should have made Joyce and Vernon brother and sister rather than Hank and Vernon. I started this story along time ago and I'm sure there was a very good reason for the way it was, I have no idea what that reason was but it was good at the time.

--thanks to PomegranateQueen for pointing out my little mistake in this chapter. It's all corrected, Wizard is a male witch and Harry's not a girl

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"So spill" said Dawn as soon as they were back home, up the stairs and out of earshot of Vernon, Petunia and Dudley, all of whom were still sitting at the dinner table.

"I should..." Harry trailed off heading towards his own room. Dawn sighed and pushed him into her own.

"You're not getting out of it that, easily. You are not getting out of this room until you tell me exactly what's going on"

"We're not meant to talk to each other" Harry reminded her.

"Tough!" she said glaring at him.

"OK, so there's some guys from school who are kinda dangerous and I got them a little angry last term and now they're probably the ones who are following me so I thought we should just get away as quickly as possible" he said, quite impressed as the lie just came to him.

Dawn just glared at him some more. "Do I look stupid? There's no reason why you couldn't have just told me that in the first place. I want the truth"

Harry tried to give her a look that said he wasn't talking, but her glare was kinda scary, and it was almost as if there were threats behind it that she could carry out. So eventually he asked "Do you believe in magic?"

Dawn relaxed slightly and sat down on the bed. "Now we're getting somewhere. And take that as hell yeah"

Harry decided to take her sitting down as an invitation for him to do the same, so he sat at the desk chair. "Well I'm a wizard"

"That's like the male term for a witch right?" asked Dawn.

"Yeah. And I don't go to some young offenders' school I go to a school for magic. Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. You see there's a whole other world full of magic, these people have magical communities with their own shops banks government and schools. They completely rely on magic" He saw her confused face, "I know it's a lot to take in at first I mean when I first found out I was a..."

"What? No, I was just wondering why Willow never got to go to magic school, I would have thought at least Tara went, she's been practising since she was a kid and her mom before her, or Amy, she was a witch and her mother was a witch" as an afterthought she added. "I wonder if she'll ever get deratted"

Now it was Harry's turn to look amazed. "Where do you come from?" he asked. Most muggles who weren't even aware of the magical community couldn't start listing off all the magical people they knew, especially if said people were purebloods, which it appeared they were.

Dawn gave a sad smile. "Sunnydale, mouth of hell, general bad place. Full of vamps, demons and general evil all trying to deplete the population and end the world in their own way"

"Oh" was all Harry could say. He made a mental note to ask Hermione about Sunnydale and the mouth of hell. If she didn't know anything it would be an excuse for her to hit the library as soon as she reached school.

"Anyway, I don't think you'd finished. You're a wizard, why is that a reason for you being followed"

"Well, there's this evil wizard. He believes that witches and wizards who aren't purebloods, as in their parents were muggles, non magic people, are inferior to purebloods, the wizards and witches whose parents had magic and come from a long line of magic. He was gaining power about fourteen years ago; he was killing anybody who got in his way. One night he came to my parents house, killed them and tried to kill me, only somehow the curse backfired and left him nearly dead, for years everybody thought he was dead, only he wasn't"

"And I'm guessing major grudge against you then" said Dawn.

"Something like that. I was a year old at the time anyway, all I've got from the experience is this" he lifted up his messy black hair to reveal the lightening scar. "The thing is he was severely weakened, until last year. He did some kind of spell using my blood to bring himself back to full power. Now he's out on the loose and the whole worlds denying it. However Voldemort and me still aren't exactly best of friends and he still wants me dead"

"So that was his followers after you?"

"I would take a guess at yes. They're called death eaters."

"Death eaters? How corny is that?"

"Yeah well, corny or not their dangerous, so if you do happen to bump into any guys in black robes and white masks, run in the opposite direction very fast" He finally took the time to look around her room. It had been the guest room but had been redecorated in a pale purple. It was bigger than his and even though she had more stuff it still seemed bare and unlived in. There were still a couple of boxes sitting in one corner. "Not finished unpacking yet?" he asked.

She followed his eyes to the boxes. "Mainly books, no where to put them"

He eyed the size of the two boxes "Big reader?"

She shrugged. "Been having trouble sleeping"

He nodded. "I can relate" he said thinking of that voice saying 'kill the spare' that he heard every night in his dreams, as well as Cedric's empty eyes. He stood up. "I should go before anybody realises we've been talking"

"Yeah" she agreed. Then thought of something. "Wait, why all the secrecy why am I being told you're some criminal who I should avoid"

"Well Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia have magic phobias. They hated my parents when they were alive for what they were. Then when I came here after my parents died that hatred was just carried on. They hoped if I never heard of magic I wouldn't be able to use it. But they couldn't exactly hide it after a half giant knocked down the door and took me to Hogwarts. Since then they've hated me for being a wizard. Word of advice, don't say the word magic in front of them. Or witch or wizard for that matter, or anything else magic related"

She nodded, she would have to remember this, and she should probably work on some way of keeping all her 'borrowed' books away from her aunt and uncle.

Before he opened the door Harry asked. "So this gym, it really was full of vampires?"

Dawn smirked, the closest thing to a genuine smile in a while. "You'll just have to keep wondering about that one"

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And Harry did, even if Buffy had known about the existence of vampires he couldn't understand why a teenage girl would take it upon herself to burn down the gym. What was she? Some kind of amateur vampire hunter? It didn't seem all that plausible, so maybe Buffy just was crazy.

Another chapter done. Well, please review.


	5. The Dementors

Chapter Four: The Dementors  
  
Just a quick note to warn you all that there may be a bit of a drop in standard, ie my chapters are gonna get kinda crap until I've got Dawn firmly stuck into the magical side of the HP world. This is proving to be quite difficult, but I'm pretty sure it should get better once I've got her there.  
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That one occasion where Harry had filled Dawn in on their stalkers was the only time they had really talked. Now they were both sticking to the ignoring rule set by their aunt and uncle. Both were too caught up in their own worlds trying to deal with the grief anyway.  
  
That night Dawn had come out of her shell more than she had in a while. She was having too many flashbacks of always being out of the loop back in Sunnydale. She didn't want to be back in the position where the big Scooby meeting was going on downstairs and she was listening in to what she could trying to work out what was going on. Remembering that feeling had driven her to glare it out of Harry. If that hadn't worked she was going to start on the more physical technique of hitting.  
  
Harry had just been downright scared of Dawn. He was also a terrible liar and couldn't think of an excuse after he'd promised to tell her the truth. He was so surprised at how she had taken the news that he had forgotten to ask her the two big questions in his mind, why was she being followed? and how could she tell? The no communication rule made it difficult to ask, that and the fact that she stayed in her room most days while he preferred to walk around outside when he wasn't busy doing chores.  
  
Harry now knew that there was the possibility that somebody was following him at all times. He tried to be quiet and listen for any signs but he found none, he even began to wonder of Dawn had just sensed his general apprehension and tricked him into talking. He knew staying in at all times was completely out of the question, so instead he was just careful when he went out. He tried to be aware of his surroundings, he never went too far from the house and he always had his wand on him.  
  
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One night he had been walking when he came across Dudley. The two of them had had an argument, and Dudley had revealed that at night Harry was talking in his sleep, shouting for Cedric and his parents as he relived that horrible night in his dreams. He now had his wand pointed at Dudley and it had the desired effect of making him shut up about his dreams.  
  
"What's going on here?" asked Dawn as she appeared by Harry's side. She was also one for walking at night, normally she would avoid the others, but tonight her curiosity got the better of her. .  
  
"Make him point that thing somewhere else!" demanded Dudley.  
  
"What exactly is that thing?" asked Dawn, she had never actually seen a wand before, although her head was sorting through all the information to bring her to that conclusion. Harry was a wizard. He had a book about wands under his bed that she had found ages ago. The Dursleys were afraid of magic, Harry was holding a stick at Dudley and that seemed to scare him. Therefore: magic wand.  
  
"This?" said Harry casually. "This is just some stick I picked up"  
  
"Riiight, well maybe you should point your stick elsewhere"  
  
"I dunno, I kinda like pointing it at Dudley" he turned to Dudley. "You are never going to talk about THAT again. Do you understand?"  
  
"Don't point that thing at me!"  
  
"Do you understand?"  
  
"Point it somewhere else!"  
  
"Do you understand?"  
  
"Get that thing away from…"  
  
Dudley gave an odd shuddering gasp, as though he had been doused in icy water. Dawn had to prevent herself from making a similar noise as she felt a coldness wash over her. The whole world seemed to pitch black, as she began to make out her surroundings once more she thought she saw to shadowy figures at one end of the alley, they were tall and wearing long black cloaks that covered them from head to foot. When she looked closer she began to doubt they had feet, they seemed to just glide, and they were gliding closer.  
  
The panic was beginning to grow as they grew closer, and then suddenly she was up at the tower again. The crusty guys had tied her up but she could see the rescue party coming for her. Hope flared briefly as she watched her friends fight below. Then she saw Buffy apparently lose and she screamed until she realised that had only been the buffbot. Then Spike was there and she let out the breath she seemed to have been holding since the whole lot arrived. She screamed again as he was thrown off, then the screams were of pain as Doc began to slash at, the blood dripped down and the light danced on her face. The portal was open. Then before she had a chance to register anything else, Buffy was jumping. Buffy was dead lying at the bottom then…  
  
"Dawn, Dawn come on, it's all right they're gone" It was Harry, his voice was kind and didn't fit with everything she had just seen, she could hear another voice behind him, an old woman urging him to hurry. She couldn't really see properly yet, but she felt Harry loop an arm under hers, then another under her legs and pick her up. He started to carry her until he realised he would have to help Dudley along as well. Instead he settled on letting Mrs Figg help the lighter Dawn to walk as he dragged Dudley.  
  
Dawn was aware that she was walking but she couldn't really concentrate. She wanted to know what had just happened. She was sure Harry had said 'they' are gone. So someone had done that to her? How? It had been so real, that was real pain she felt it was worse than her dreams. She was surprised to find that she wasn't actually bleeding, instead all she could feel was scars that were still in the process of healing. It hadn't been real, then what was it?  
  
Dawn wasn't sure what happened next, because she was out cold. She was already not quite there because of the Dementors and the exhaustion from not sleeping properly for at least a month began to kick in. While her relatives argued around her she was left on the sofa, nobody giving her a second thought.  
  
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